Machine for casting printing plates



May 30, 1961 Filed July 3, 1958 P. L. TOLLISON ET AL MACHINE FOR CASTINGPRINTING PLATES 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. I

INVENTORS PAUL L. TOLLISON CHARLES L.

flwaama ZM,

I/UTORNEYS RICARDS SAMUEL ODER MAN May 30, 1961 P. L. TOLLISON ETAL2,985,925

MACHINE FOR CASTING PRINTING PLATES Filed July 3, 1958 6 Sheets-Sheet 2I IIIII/IIIIA VII l/A III L A A\\\\\\ I //r/ A INVENTORS PAUL L.TOLLISON CHARLES L. RICARDS SAMUEL ODERMAN BY 7 0M, 5M 1min, m,

ATTORNEYS M y 1 1 P. L. TOLLISON ETAL 85,925

MACHINE FOR CASTING PRINTING PLATES Filed July 3, 1958 6 Sheets-Sheet 3F l G. 3 6O xx m 1 INVENTORS PAUL L.TOLL:J$EOgh,nNi-1ARLES L. RIC;DS 8SAMUEL 0 av a ,1,

7 ATTORNEYS May 30, 1961 P. L. TOLLISON ET AL 2,985,925

MACHINE FOR CASTING PRINTING PLATES Filed July 3. 1958 6 Sheets-Sheet 4y 30, 1961 P. L. TOLLISON ETAL 2,985,925

MACHINE FOR CASTING PRINTING PLATES Filed'July 3, 1958 6 Sheets-Sheet 5FIG.5

INVENTORS PAUL L.TOLLISON CHARLES L. RICARDS' SAMUEL ODERMAN BY 1 617017), flaw/47 ATTORNEYS May 30, 1961 P. TOLLISON ETAL 2,985,925

MACHINE FOR CASTING PRINTING PLATES Filed July 3, 1958 6 Sheets-Sheet 6f m co d w 5* T O 41 O aizu liq; w

United States Patent MACHINE FOR CASTING PRINTING PLATES Paul L.Tollisou, North Plainfield, Charles L. Ricards, South Plainfield, andSamuel Odermau, West Deal, N.J., assignors to Wood Newspaper MachineryCorporation, Plainfield, N.J., a corporation of Virginia Filed July 3,1958, Ser. No. 746,509 7 Claims. (Cl. 22-3) This invention relates tomachines for casting stereotype plates and has for its object to providea fully automatic machine which will continuously cast plates in anydesired number from a single matrix, move the freshly'cast plates to aninspection station and thence to and through the plate trimming machineand the cooling machine, and thence to the discharge conveyor, allwithout handling by the operator. Stereotype plate casting machines arenow manufactured wherein the plates are cast, trimmed and cooled. Suchmachines, however, require hand manipulation to effect the opening andclosing of the casting box and the delivery of the plate into thetrimming section.

The plate casting machines now on the market can produce at a maximumapproximately three plates per minute, whereas the machine embodying theinvention of the present application can produce between four and fiveplates per minute. Moreover, in the machine of the present applicationthe plates are constantly subject to inspection, as the machine isentirely-automatic and the trimming of the previously cast plate and thecasting of the succeeding plate are going on while the intermediateplate is inspected. Also, discarding the plate if found imperfect doesnot in any way interfere with the operation of the machine, but merely.restricts the output of the machine for that particular minute to threeor four plates instead of four or five. No operator is required for themachine save the inspection op- ,erator, for at the inspection stand acontrol button is provided by which the machine may be stopped in anemergency and restarted should it be necessary for any reason tointerrupt the continuous automatic operation of the various parts of themachine.

In accordance with the present invention the casting boxis arranged withthe axis of the core parallel with the axis of the trimming arch and themolten metal is forced under pressure into the lower open end of themold and maintained under pressure during the cooling period. At theconclusion of the cooling period the :casting box is opened, the core isrevolved around its axis through a movement of 180 and upon againclosing the casting box the plate is' elevated by rollers carrie dby thecasting box to thereby bring the edges of the plate in alignment withthe rollers which support the plate as it moves to the inspectionstation and thence to the plate trimming and cooling sections. After thecasting box is thus closed the metal for a second plate is discharged.intothe casting box. While this is taking place the operator at theinspection stand inspects the plate and if defective can, by a platedischarge device, discharge the defective plate onto a conveyor leading[to the furnace so that the defective plate is immediately returned tothe furnace where the metal is reused. If the plate is foundsatisfactory it is automatically shifted into the trimming section ofthe machine.

In the accompanying drawings we have illustrated the :entire castingmachine and have shown in detail the new a casting box and inspectionapparatus and in the said drawings 1 is a side elevation of the entiremachine;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on a somewhat enlarged scale of the castingbox and a portion of the machine adjacent the casting box showing themechanism for opening and closing the casting box;

Fig. 3 is a similar sectional view of the portion of the machineincluding the inspection station and certain adjacent parts and themechanism for operating certain parts as hereinafter described; I

Fig. 4 is an enlarged partial sectional view on line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a similar partial sectional view on line 55 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 6 is a detail view showing the mechanism for operating theinspection stand to discard an imperfect p ate.

Referring to the drawings, particularly to Fig. l, 1 indicates the platecasting section, 2 an intermediate station between the casting sectionand the inspection stand 3, 4 the trimming section and 5 the coolingsection. The trimming and cooling sections are of the same constructionas embodied in plate casting machinesv now on the market, and thisportion of the machine will not be further described.

The plate casting and inspection portions of the machine, shown indetail in Figs. 2 to 6 comprises a cylindrical core 6 mounted forrotation and so positioned that the axis of the cylindrical core of thecore box is parallel with the axis of the trimming arch but lower thantheaxis of the trimming arch so that when the plate is.

lifted from the core its edges will be in line with the rollers uponwhich the plate is supported in its passage through the inspectionstation and into the trimming The cylinder 6 is a hollow drum theinteriorsection. of which is connected through hollow bearings with thescribed in detail.

devices of usual design, not shown. The casting box:

is formed with the usual vacuum chamber 9 and cool-- ing watercompartments. The casting box is positioned below the cylindrical coreand is mounted for move-- ment toward and away from the core. After theplate: is cast the casting box is lowered to open the mold, by amechanism to be later described. The core is their automatically rotatedalternately in opposite directions; through by an hydraulic motor whoseoperation is controlled by an automatic timing system, not shown. Thehalf rotation is followed by a period of rest during which the castingbox is elevated, thereby liftingthe cast plate from the core and closingthe mold to receive the metal for a second plate. The molten metal fromthe furnace is discharged into the mold through nozzles 20 in the coverplate of the discharge manifold 21, shown in Fig. 2.

' As here shown. the molten metal manifold is semicircular in shape andsupported adjacent the lower end of the cylindrical core. The portion ofthe manifold contacting the adjacent'core consists of a plate 22 formedwith an axially projecting rib 23 through which rib the dischargenozzles 20'are formed by holes drilled through the rib and communicatingwith the interior of the manifold. These nozzles are closely spacedthroughout the length of the rib so that the molten metal will be.discharged into the mold at a rate to rapidly fill the mold before themetal begins to solidify. The manifold is sup- .ported in fixed positionand the upper edge of the rib 23 finished to fit against a complementarysurface formed on the adjacent edge of the casting box so that when thecasting box is closed and held in closed position under pressure therewill be a metal tight joint on both faces of the rib, thereby preventingany leakage of the molten metal.

The casting box is connected through a fixed pipe 24 with the moltenmetal pump, not shown, but it will be understood that the pump isoperated in timed sequence with the closing of the mold so as todischarge molten metal through the pipe 24 into the manifold 21 underpressure and maintain that pressure on the metal for a sufiicient periodfor the metal in the casting cavity to solidify. At the end of this timeinterval the movement of the piston of the metal pump is reversed,thereby creating a suction at the end of the pipe away from the manifoldand effecting the withdrawal of the molten metal from the pipe back intothe furnace. As the plate 22 forming the face of the manifold is chilledby contact with the core and covering of the casting box, the metalextending into the bores in the plate is solidified and before thecylindrical core 6 is rotated it is shifted endwise a sufiicientdistance with respect to the manifold 21 for the projecting fingers ofmetal at the end of the plate to be withdrawn from the plate 22. The endof the mold opposite the manifold 21 is closed by a semicircular flangedmember 25 mounted on the hub of the cylindrical core and movable axiallywith respect thereto and before the core is rotated the member 25 ismoved away from the cast plate, as will be later described, so that thecast plate is completely released and can move with the rotating corewhen the latter is turned its half rotation.

As shown in Fig. 2, the core 6 is attached to the end of the sleeve 10mounted for rotation and axial recipro cation on a fixed shaft 11. Thecore is grooved to provide the customary ribs on the concave face of thecast plate. Additional grooves 12 are also formed in the outer face ofthe core, said grooves being undercut as shown to hold the cast platewhen the metal has solidified in contact with the core when the core isrotated through 180, as above described. The sleeve 10 to which the corebox is attached is rotated through 180 and then back again by means of agear 13 keyed to the sleeve 10 and meshing with a segment 14 which isoscillated through a suflicient arc to effect a 180 .oscillation of thecore by means of a crank arm 15 attached to the end of the shaft 16 ofan hydraulic motor 17 to which fluid under pressure is supplied from asource, not shown, through the automatic time control mechanism. Themotor 17 is a vane type motor and the hydraulic fluid is delivered tofirst one side of the vane and then the other to effect the desiredmovements of the core and to hold the core in fixed position during thecasting operation. As heretofore explained, this lifting of the plate iseffected by a series of rollers 7 along the upper edges of thesemicylindrical casting box, and as the casting box is closed theserollers lift the previously cast plate from the upper side of thecylindrical core as best shown in Fig. 4. At the end of the upwardmovement of the casting box the mold is fully closed and the matrix isin position with respect to the lower face of the core to receive thecharge of molten metal to thereby cast a second plate.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 4, the casting box is mounted for movement at anangle to the vertical plane, that is, in a plane at right angles to theaxis of the shaft of the cylindrical core. The semicylindrical castingbox 8 is carried by a movable frame 26 which slides in a fixed frameportion 27. The frame 26 is also provided with a plunger 28 attached toan arm 29 depending from the frame to thereby hold the slide againsttilting movement. A

It should be here observed that the contacting surfaces can be sofinished as to be tight against the loss of metal under the pressureapplied to the molten metal char c without being air-tight and that theair will escape from e mold as the mold is filled without building up asignificant back pressure.

, '4 counterweight mechanism is connected to the plunger 28 tocounterbalance the frame and casting box.

The frame 26 is elevated and -lowered by means of crank arms 30connected to the frame 27 as shown in Fig. 4. The crank arms 30 areattached at their lower ends to the cranks of a crank shaft 31 which isperiodically oscillated by a hydraulic motor 32 through an arc of toelevate and lower the casting box in timed rela tion with the rotationof the core.

The mechanism for effecting the axial reciprocation of the cylindricalcore 6 and the flanged member 25 is shown in Figs. 2 and 5. As hereshown the gear 13 through which the cylindrical core is rotated carriesa ring 33 to which is attached a yoke lever 34 to whose lower end isconnected a crank arm 35 carried by a crank shaft which is oscillated byan hydraulic motor 36 in timed relation with the operation of thehydraulic motor 32 to oscillate the yoke lever 34 once for each oscillation of the cylindrical core. Also attached to the yoke lever 34, seeFig. 5, are a pair of upstanding arms 37 connected by links 37 with theflanged member 25 at the outer end of the cylindrical core. It will beunderstood that the arms 37 are somewhat longer than the correspondingarms of yoke lever 34 and therefore the llanged member 25 will beshifted somewhat faster and to a somewhat greater extent than thecylindrical core itself, thus simultaneously moving the core and thecast plate away from the manifold 21 and moving the flanged member 25away from the other end of the cast plate.

As shown in Fig. 4 the upper edges of the casting box 8 extend, when thebox is closed, above the median horizontal plane of the cylindrical coreand attached to the upper edges of the casting box are a pair of rails38 on which are mounted the rollers 7 which engage the lower edges ofthe cast plate to lift the plate from the cylindrical core when the corebox is closed. The rails 38 are movable toward and away from each otherso that on the downward movement of the casting box the rollers willclear the upper edges of the freshly cast plate. After the cylindricalcore is rotated through 180 the rails 38 carrying the rollers are movedtoward each other to thereby bring the rollers beneath the edges of theplate which has now been inverted by the half rotation of the core. Themechanism for shifting the bars carrying the rollers toward and awayfrom each other comprises arms 70 on which the rails 38 are mounted andwhich are rotatably mounted on shafts 71 carried by the box 8. Rollers72 are mounted on the free ends of arms 71 and are adapted to engagemembers 39 which are in turn connected by links 73 and 74 to the frame27. It is seen that as the box 8 is lowered, the rollers 72 will engagethe members 39 to cause the arm 70 to rotate about shafts 71 and to movethe rollers 7 away from each other. When the box 8 is raised the members39 will be raised also, while at the same time they will move outward ofthe center line of the machine to allow rollers 7 to move toward eachother. When the box reaches the limit of its upward movement and theplate has been lifted from the core 6, members 39 will fall back underthe force of gravity to the positions shown in Fig. 4.

The mechanism for manipulating the cast plate during inspectioncomprises a frame 41 mounted for oscillation on a shaft 42 supported infixed bearings in a position parallel with but above the axis of theshaft of the rotating core. The frame 41 is provided on each side withrollers 43 whose upper surfaces are in line with the plate supportingrollers of the casting box when it is in its elevated position and alsothe plate supporting rollers 44 which support the plate in its movementinto the trimming section, see Fig. l. The mechanism for oscillating theframe 41 comprises a hand crank shaft 45 having a bevel gear 46 whichmeshes with a bevel gear 47 attached to a stub shaft 48 geared at itsupper end to bevel gears carried by the shaft 42. i

The plate, if found defective, may be ejected from the frame 41 bymanipulation of the hand crank 45. The

mechanism for efiecting this ejection of the plate is shown in Fig. 6and comprises two ejection arms 62 attached to a shaft 63 which isgeared to the shaft 42 by gears 64 one of which has a lost motionconnection with its shaft so that the shaft will be turned only when thehand crank 45 is turned beyond the point required for inspecting theplate.

Between the inspection station and the plate casting section is anintermediate station at which a plate may be stopped in case theinspection of a plate and its acceptance or refusal should take longerthan the interval allowed by the automatic timing system. The stopmechanism at this intermediate station comprises a finger 56 carried bya tilting member 57 pivoted at 58 and periodically tilted by a plungercarried by a small bydraulic cylinder 59, as shown. in Fig. 3, when itis desired to stop the plates at the intermediate station.

A similar stop mechanism having a finger 60 is provided, at theinspection station, for holding the plate against movement toward thetrimming section and in the normal sequence ofoperations the plates willnot be stopped at the intermediate station and the. freshly cast plate,as soon as his elevated above a fixed stop 61, will move of its, ownweight along the rollers 7 and 43 (see Fig. 2) until its forward edgeengages the stop 60. As the freshly cast plate is elevated above thestop 61 the stop 60 is tilted by its plunger to release the inspectionplate and is returned to stop position before the freshly cast platereaches the stop. If, however, the inspection of a particular platerequires a longer time than allowed in the predetermined time cycle, thestop at the intermediate station may be set to stop the freshly castplate and hold it in intermediate position until the inspection iscompleted and the plate released for movement into the trimming sectionor discharged into the furnace. To this end manually operated controlbuttons, not shown, are provided for effecting the operation of thestops 50 and 60.

. The operation of the machine as a whole will now be described. It willbe understood that the motors which effect the movement of the variousparts are controlled for sequential operation by a time control systemwhich can be set to initiate the operation of the various parts in adesired sequence and at preset time intervals. Such time control systemsare available on the market and the details thereof form no part of thepresent invention. The a system employed is provided with a counterwhich can be set to automatically repeat the cycle of operationsrequired for casting a plate for any number of cycles. Such counters areprovided with means for changing the setting during the operation of themachine controlled by the system and the change setting mechanism isconnected to the defective plate throwout so as to add one cycle to theoriginal setting for each plate throwout so that the machine, once set,will automatically cast and finish the number of plates for which it isoriginally set.

The control system is set to end the cycle when the casting box is inits lowermost position and the molten metal has been returned to themelting pot. In this position the operator may readily remove the matrixfrom the casting box and insert a fresh matrix so that the machine maybe speedily restarted to automatically cast the desired number of platesfrom the second matrix.

The operation of the machine is initiated by a starting button and itwill be understood that, as customary in machines of this kind, thecircuit of the starting button is so arranged that it cannot be closedunless the water circulating pump, the vacuum pump and the heatingelements for the molten metal manifold are ready for the castingoperation to be initiated.

When the circuit through the starting button is completed power issupplied to the motor 32 which elevates the casting box, thereby closingthe mold. The molten metal pump then functions to force the molten metalthrough the pipe 24 and manifold 21 into the mold cavity, the air in themold cavity escaping through the vents above described: After the metalin Fig. 2, releasing the plate from the manifold. During this movementthe flange member 25 is also shifted to the right by means of the arms37 and links 37 and at a faster rate than the core to thereby releasethe plate at the end opposite from the manifold. The hydraulic motor 17is then supplied with power to effect a half rotation of the core tothereby invert the plate and at the same time bring the other mold faceof the core opposite the casting box so that when the casting box isagain closed the mold will be ready to receive the molten metal for thesecond plate. 7

As the casting box is closed the rollers 7 engage the edges of thefreshly cast plate, lifting the plate off the core. As the plate islifted some of the metal of the ribs formed in the undercut grooves 12breaks away. The grooves 12 are of a size and shape for the ribs formedtherein to hold the plate on the core during the rotation of the core,'but give way under slight force when the plate is elevated. The smallamount of metal that may be broken off when the plate is lifted ismelted by the heat of the metal when the next plate is cast. During theupward movement of the casting box power is supplied to the motor 36 toshift the core and the yoke lever 34 in the reverse direction to therebyrestore the manifold 21 and the flange member 25 to proper position toclose the ends of the mold when the core box reaches its uppermostposition.

As the core box moves upwardly the end of the plate resting on therollers 7 clears the fixed stop 61 and the plate moves by gravity to theintermediate station. As explained above, the stop 56 of theintermediate station may be set by the operator to either stop the plateor let it move on to the inspection station. The stop 60 at theinspection station is set to stop the plate and inspect it bymanipulation of the hand crank 45 which can tilt the plate first in onedirection and then the other so as to quickly examine its entiresurface. If the plate is found defective the crank arm is moved beyondthe angle for inspection purposes and when so moved the ejection arm 62is elevated through the gearing and lost motion clutch above described,thereby lifting the plate off of the rollers 43 and discharging it intothe chute leading to the melting pot. As previously explained, themovement of the crank arm through sufficient distance to eject the plateadds one cycle to the setting of the counter so that the automaticoperation of the machine will continue until the desired number ofplates has been cast.

In the foregoing description and accompanying drawings we haveillustrated the machine as it is now being manufactured for commercialuse. It will be understood, however, that the invention is not limitedto the particular mechanisms herein illustrated and described, butcovers all such modifications thereof as fall within the scope of theappended claims.

We claim:

1. A plate casting machine comprising a casting station, a trimmingsection and a cooling section arranged in axial alignment with oneanother and at an angle to the horizontal axis of said machine,supporting rollers arranged in alignment with one another and parallelto said axial alignment supporting and guiding plates as they move bygravity through the successive sections; said casting station comprisinga rotatable and longitudinally movable cylindrical core, asemi-cylindrical casting box reciprocally movable in a direction withrespect to said axial alignment to and away from said core, a moldcavity formed by the adjacent opposed surfaces of said is solidified thecasting box is lowered, separating the matrix from the freshly castplate; the plate being held against the core by the manifold- 21 andmember 25 and also by the metal of the plate '1 a core and said castingbox having its longitudinal axis parallel to said axial alignment,molten metal delivery means extending into the lower end of said moldcavity, a semi-circular sealing member mounted on said core for axialmovement therewith forming an upper wall of said mold cavity, coremoving means for shifting said core axially to separate said mold cavityfrom said metal delivery means, and sealing member moving means formoving said sealing member axially of said core a greater distance thansaid core when said core is moved by said COI'C moving means.

2. A plate casting machine according to claim 1 having in addition aninspection section positioned between said casting station and saidtrimming section comprising a rotatable plate support whereby said platemay be rotated for inspection.

3. A plate casting machine according to claim 1 wherein plate liftingrollers are carried by said movable casting box in position to engagethe edges of the plate on the upper side of the cylindrical core whenthe box is elevated to close the mold against the lower face of saidcore.

4. A plate casting machine according to claim 3 wherein the liftingrollers are moved outwardly on the downward movement of the box when theplate has solidified.

5. A plate casting mechanism comprising an inclined cylindrical corehaving two mold forming surfaces of substantially semi-cylindricalextent, core rotation means for periodically rotating said core 180about its longitudinal axis, an inclined semi-cylindrical casting boxcooperating with one of said mold forming surfaces to form a moldcavity, box moving means for moving said box toward and from said corein the interval between its successive half rotations, a semi-circularmetal delivery manifold having a plurality of metal delivery nozzlestherein provided at the lower end of said core and box when said coreand box are in the casting position to form a lower wall of said mold, asemi-circular sealing member mounted on said core for axial movementtherewith forming an upper mold wall, core moving means for shiftingsaid core axially to separate said mold and the formed casting from saidmanifold and to remove cast metal from said nozzles, and sealing membermoving means for moving said sealing member axially of said core agreater distance than said core when said core is moved by said coremoving means.

6. In a plate casting machine a casting box, a core, said casting boxand core forming a mold cavity, core moving means for moving said coreaxially along its longitudinal axis, box moving means for moving saidbox away from and towards said core, an upper seal forming an upper wallof said cavity, seal moving means for moving said seal parallel to saidcore a greater distance than when said core is moved by said core movingmeans, a molten metal delivery manifold forming a bottom wall of saidmold cavity, a plurality of nozzles in said mani fold opening into saidcavity, a source of molten metal, a passage from said source to saidmanifold, and a reversible pump means for forcing said molten metalthrough said passage into said manifold and mold cavity; said pump meanswhen reversed creating a suction to withdraw molten metal from saidmanifold.

7. A plate casting machine according to claim 5 wherein the molten metalis withdrawn from the metal delivery means when the plate hassolidified.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,268,463 Hopkins June 4, 1918 1,330,942 Hopkins Feb. 17, 1920 1,341,608Wood May 25, 1920 1,803,374 Wood May 5, 1931 1,922,514 Wilson Aug. 15,1933 2,076,374 King Apr. 6, 1937 2,236,212 Huck Mar. 25, 1941 2,536,670Tollison et al. Jan. 2, 1951 2,597,941 Long May 27, 1952 2,792,606Sylvester May 21, 1957

